Interview: Mumiy Troll - Russian Mummy Monsters Invade!

Let’s talk about Vladivostok.
Did you guys feel a need to
adapt or change your style
at all for the new album,
or are you writing music
pretty much the same way you
always have?Lagutenko: We’re basically
doing things the same way we
have throughout our career.
My idea, since day one, was
not to do what someone else
did already. I would go through
[the albums from] my favorite
bands when I was a kid in the
’80s—from AC/DC to Blondie,
heavy metal to New Wave, Pink
Floyd to Genesis, Sex Pistols, and
the Clash—and I would say to
myself, “Why wouldn’t you take a
bit of this and a bit of that?” So, I
always tried to write and perform
in a way that would incorporate
the best bits of what I really liked.

When we tried to publish
our first official album in Russia
15 years ago, everyone would
tell me, “It’s too Western sounding—no one will really dig it
in Russia.” And then it became
the No. 1 album. No one can
really know what real people
really want. I heard it so many
times—“This album sounds too
American”—and then you take
the same music to America,
and it’s not very commercial at
all [laughs]. So I don’t listen to
anyone—I just do what sounds
organic to myself.

Tsaler: At some point, you
don’t really give a damn about
that and just write and play the
way you do intuitively.

Ilya, did you get exposed to
the Clash, Blondie, and other
Western bands while you were
in Russia or during some of
your adventures abroad?Lagutenko: There was quite
good underground exposure of
Western music in the Russian
Soviet Union. You would never
hear that music on the radio or
television, but for some reason
the Communist party would
allow some artists from Italy or
France to come to Russia and
play. But this underground black
market for Western music was
a big, big thing in all of Russia.
I guess it’s one of those things
where, when it’s banned, people
really get into it.

Did you just hear about the
records by word of mouth,
or what?Lagutenko: Sailors [from the
cruise ships] would smuggle them
from Japan and Singapore and
wherever else they went. Another
funny thing was that sometimes
they would buy those records
only for their artwork, because
no one really followed any [official
hit-single] charts or anything.
So that’s how we ended up with
absolutely catholic tastes.

Do you worry that having an
all-English album and concentrating
efforts abroad will
alienate fans back home?Lagutenko: Yes, we do. And
apparently we’ve had this
reaction from Russian fans.
They don’t like you singing
in different languages—they
like the fun side of it from
time to time, but not full-time—so we only sing in
English outside Russia. But
we have Russian fans who
will travel anywhere, so you’ll
find a couple of Russians in
the middle of Ohio, and they
always like to hear familiar
choruses and sing-alongs. So
sometimes I like to do half
and half—a verse in English,
and then one in Russian. I’m
still researching the best way
to present our songs. It gets
pretty tricky—especially in
my head. Sometimes you just
think to yourself, “What am I
singing about?” and you forget
what language you’re singing
in, because a live show is more
about emotion and energy and
connecting with the audience.

What was it like working
with producers Mike Clink,
Joe Chiccarelli, and Greg
Brimson?Tsaler: We actually recorded
most of the stuff ourselves so
that we would put a thousand
different takes out there and
see if they could choose the
best. It didn’t quite work like
that, though.

Lagutenko: The initial idea
was to get someone onboard
who would know the Western
audience a bit better than we
did. I met Mike and Joe via
Village Studio in Los Angeles,
because we recorded a couple
of our recent albums there and
they’ve been to our live gigs. So,
we decided to do a few songs
together—we didn’t want to have
one option for the whole album,
we wanted to try different
things—and those three guys had
completely different approaches.
Joe likes to let you play live and
pick up the best performance
out of that. Mike did live recording,
too, but he also did his
homework: He had us do a lot of
multitracking, and he came up
with a lot of different versions,
level-wise and arrangement-wise,
and then we would choose what
worked better. Sometimes he
would even invite someone to
redo a part without me even
knowing. I’ve known Greg for
years—more than 10 years ago
we produced some electronic
albums for a Russian band.
Basically, I just asked him to
add some programming to what
we do. In the end, we did this
online collaboration with him
and James Sanger [Dido, Keane,
Phil Collins], who’s based in
France. We exchanged files in a
circle between London, Russia,
Los Angeles, and France, and
built some tracks from scratch
that way. It was like an online
jigsaw puzzle.

The rhythm-guitar work on
“Fantastica” sounds a bit like
David Bowie’s Let’s Dance
album, while the super-catchy
leads have a more fluid,
almost Satriani-like vibe.Tsaler: We had three or four different
rhythm structures for that
song—and we could not make up
our minds which was the right
one! Come to our live gigs—we
are famous for not playing the
same arrangements live.

Lagutenko: To be honest,
we struggled a lot with that
song. Originally, I wrote it for
a movie [Vladimir Mizoev’s
Signs of Love] … and my friend
[Mizoev] said it should be like
this and that and have this kind
of attitude. It’s a bit of a different
arrangement and pitch
in the movie, but I thought it
was an interesting song that we
could explore more. I like working
with film directors, because
they show you a direction that
you hardly would think of for
yourself, so as a favor you try to
explore unknown things, and
you get something out of yourself
that you wouldn’t expect.

The lilting vibrato of the riff
in “Lucky Bride” is especially
beautiful. How did
that evolve from the 2000
version, which is much more
electronic and pop-sounding,
with almost no guitar?Tsaler: That started as a nonguitar,
almost reggae song
when Ilya wrote it, but we were
lost in different approaches so
I tried something different.
That’s how the piano riff was
born—which made this track
famous in Russia. This time,
though, we tried for more of a
rock attitude, and our ambition
was to mix funky piano with
live attitude. It didn’t really
work, though, so it was Mike
Clink’s idea to simply forget
the piano and come back to
guitar-based arrangements.

Lagutenko: We tried to keep
the original piano riff, and
Mike said, “Just imagine there
was no riff—ever.” So we tried
it, and this is where we ended
up. For me, it became kind
of Santana-ish—a midtempo,
guitar-based song, which is not
very characteristic of us. But it
still fits our intentions, so I was
pretty happy—it was such an
unexpected take on that song.

You also redid “Vladivostok
2000” as “Vladivostok
Vacation,” this time around,
but it sounds fairly close to
the original. What was the
goal for the new version?Tsaler: We could not fit English
lyrics to the existing master multitrack,
so we realized the best
way would be for Ilya to sing it
to a live version. So we played
it in the studio all together, the
way we do in concert.

Lagutenko: We played it the
way we play it live, because
it evolved over the years to
be more energetic. So I guess
it’s one of those things where
you try to recreate the original
sound but make it better.

Let’s talk a little about
some of the larger lessons
you’ve learned from the new
album. You formed your own
management and publishing
companies after getting
burned in your first record
deal. As you’ve gotten more
familiar with the music business
in the West, what similarities
have you seen—and what
wisdom do have to offer?Tsaler: We come from a country
that knows how to dig oil
and gas. If you play rock ’n’ roll
there, you have to understand
you’ve chosen the most difficult
lifestyle ever. One of the famous
’80s Russian rockers—Boris
Grebenshchikov—once sang,
“We’re all victims of a nonrhythmic
country,” and it’s
true—our motherland does not
care about rock too much. So
you’re totally on your own and
in unknown territory [there].

Lagutenko: To be honest,
the only wisdom I have to share
with younger artists is … When
I signed my first contract, I knew
what would happen. In other
words, I was completely clear—I
totally understood—that I would
get nothing out of it. But I also
knew I had to take that first step
with those people just to be able
to make a second step. I’d been
informed about the bad side of
rock ’n’ roll. I’d met a famous
Russian rock performer—his
name is Konstantin Kinchev
from the band Alisa—and he
told me, “Ilya, I know where
you’ll end up in a few years.
First, you’ll get bored, then you’ll
get into drugs … ” all the stereotypes
of the rise and fall of the
typical rock guy. I said, “How
do you know this will happen
to me?” and he said, “It will
happen to everyone. Trust me, I
would know—because I’ve been
through it.” I said, “No, no, no.
I’m pretty sure I have a different
idea how I can handle that.”

Through the years, I’ve
proved that I can handle any
situation, but you have to be
in charge of everything yourself.
So, whatever you sign,
whatever you do, don’t blame
other people. If something bad
happens to you, consider it an
experience and nothing more.
You don’t have to kill yourself
because you made a mistake.

As Premier Guitar chief content officer since January 2010, Shawn Hammond oversees all of PG’s articles, videos, audio, and social media offerings. Although he’s probably as loathe to admit his alma mater as they are to claim him, Shawn has a degree in journalism from Brigham Young University, and a long history in guitar journalism predating his tenure at PG. He’s an avowed Tele, Bigsby, and baritone fanatic, and as his Tuning Up columns regularly reveal, he’s kind of a cantankerous bastard who tends to flip the bird at convention.

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